Devizes waste recycle centre fire still alight after a week

A fire at a waste recycling centre in Devizes is still burning a week after it began, the fire service has said.

The blaze broke out at the Wiltshire Waste site in Nursteed Road last Tuesday.

A Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said a quantity of rubbish was still smouldering, and was expected to stay alight for another week.

Firefighters brought the fire under control on Thursday and left it to burn itself out.

The spokesman said the decision to allow it to burn was agreed following discussions with the Environment Agency, because trying to extinguish it would have required a “massive amount of water”, which would then have been contaminated.

Mechanical diggers are being used to keep items away from the fire, and to turn over the smouldering waste to encourage it to die out more quickly, the spokesman added.

Wiltshire Council’s public health team has also carried out air monitoring in the area around the site and it is satisfied that the smoke only carries a low risk to people, and there are “no particular toxic hazards”.